Marcos Danilo Ureña Porras, known as Marco Ureña (born 5 March 1990), is a Costa Rican professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

C.S. Cartaginés Club Sport Cartaginés Deportiva S.A., also known as Cartaginés, is a Costa Rican football club, that currently plays in the Liga de Fútbol de Primera División, the top division of Costa Rican football league system. Cartaginés' home venue i ...

. He has also played for the Costa Rica national team.

Club career

Born in

San José San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to: *San Jose, California, United States *San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital San José or San Jose may also refer to: Places Argentina * San José, Buenos Aires ** San ...

, Costa Rica, Ureña started his career at Primera División side Alajuelense and in March 2011, he joined Russian Premier League side Kuban Krasnodar. In August 2014, Ureña moved to

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

side FC Midtjylland on a four-month loan deal. The contract was made permanent on 10 December 2014. On 21 July 2016, Midtjylland and

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was p ...

agreed to swap Ureña with Jonas Borring in a three-year deal. It was announced on 27 January 2017 that Ureña had been signed by

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

side

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

. He scored his first MLS goal in a 2–1 road loss to New York City FC at

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

on 1 April 2017. Ureña recorded his first MLS assist at home to achieve a 1–1 draw against

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

on 8 April 2017. His game-winning goal over

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that plays in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Socc ...

on 22 October secured San Jose's sixth-place spot in the

2017 MLS Cup Playoffs The 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs (branded as the 2017 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for sponsorship reasons) began on October 25, and ended on December 9 with MLS Cup 2017, the 22nd league championship match for MLS. This is the 22nd version of the MLS Cup P ...

, the team's first playoff appearance since 2012. On 12 December 2017, MLS expansion side

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

selected Ureña as its third pick in the

2017 MLS Expansion Draft The 2017 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Los Angeles FC held on December 12, 2017. Lists of protected rosters and draft-eligible players were released by MLS on December 10, 2017. Format The r ...

. Following his release by Los Angeles, Ureña was selected by Chicago Fire in the MLS Waiver Draft on 12 December 2018. However, he opted to join Alajuelense on 21 January 2019. On 24 March 2020, Ureña joined

Gwangju FC Gwangju FC (Korean: 광주 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in Gwangju that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. They joined the K League in the 2011 season. History Gwangju FC was founded ...

of the South Korean

K League K League (Hangul: K리그) is South Korea's professional football league. It includes first division K League 1 and second division K League 2. History Until the 1970s, South Korean football operated two major football leagues, the National S ...

. On 22 December 2020, Urena signed with the

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

in the Australian

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

International career

Ureña participated in the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confedera ...

for Costa Rica where Costa Rica U-20 national football team, placed 4th after losing to Hungary in the match for the 3rd place. He scored three goals on that competition. In 2009, Ureña made his debut for the Costa Rica national football team in a match against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. In June 2014, Ureña was named in Costa Rica's squad for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. In the team's opening match, he scored the third goal for ''Los Ticos'' in a 3–1 defeat of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. At the

2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF, and 24th CONCACAF regional championship ove ...

, he scored the winner in Costa Rica's opening match and 0–1 victory against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

off of an assist from New York City FC man and fellow MLS player Rodney Wallace on 7 July 2017, at Red Bull Arena. This performance earned him CONCACAF Man of the Match honors. On 1 September 2017, Ureña recorded a brace in Costa Rica's crucial World Cup qualifier against the United States, again at Red Bull Arena. On 5 September 2017, Ureña scored off of a volley to equalize the match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, which also served as his first goal at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica. In May 2018 he was named in Costa Rica's 23 man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. This would be Ureña's last call to play for Costa Rica. Upon his return to Costa Rican football in 2022, Ureña explained that his disappearance from the national team was due to internal conflicts he had with both players and personnel from the Costa Rican Football Federation. He cited Rónald González as the only coach that would call him up, but upon the arrival of Gustavo Matosas, Ureña knew he would not be called up anymore.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first.''

Personal life

Ureña married Ana Paula Aguilar in May 2014.Marco Ureña se sudó la camiseta y le anotó un tanto al amor
- Nación

Honours

* Costa Rican Championship ** Invierno 2010 * 2011 Copa Centroamericana Golden Boot

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Urena, Marco 1990 births Living people People from San José, Costa Rica Association football forwards Costa Rican footballers Costa Rica international footballers 2011 Copa Centroamericana players 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2014 Copa Centroamericana players Copa América Centenario players 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Copa Centroamericana-winning players L.D. Alajuelense footballers FC Kuban Krasnodar players FC Midtjylland players Brøndby IF players San Jose Earthquakes players Los Angeles FC players Gwangju FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players Costa Rican expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in Denmark Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in South Korea Expatriate soccer players in Australia Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Russia Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in the United States Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Australia Liga FPD players Russian Premier League players Danish Superliga players Major League Soccer players K League 1 players A-League Men players